TV DX and VHF long distance reception

[Penthode]

I have been searching for a list online after the US DTV Channel repack, of the new allocations nationwide. Does anyone have the list?

After the repack, I thought that maybe I should resume DX channel hunting? It will depend upong the number and radiated power of the VHF new allocations. We have just past the solar sunspot minimum in 2019 and the next peak is due in 2025.

TV DXing appeared more prevalent when I was younger. I recall the summer of '72 when the sunspots reached their peak and was able to receive TV stations thousands of miles distant.

I took advantage of the last few weeks of analog TV broadcast in June 2009 to search for distant stations on low VHF channels 2 to 6. Recall this was during the "NiteLite" period when most stations switched off and only a few stations in the US remained on to air DTV transition spots. I was living in Carbondale in Southern Illinois and had a 50' ft tower with a high gain Yagi antenna and rotor.

On a good day, you could rotate the antenna 360 degrees and pick up distant stations in all directions. From Carbondale I logged the following:

WGBH Channel 2 Boston
WPBT Channel 2 South Florida
Azteca TV Monterrey Mexico
KOB TV Channel 4 Albuquerque NM
KTVK TV Channel 5 Phoenix
CKCK TV (CTV) Channel 2 Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
CBAT TV Channel 4 (CBC) Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Videokarma unfortunately would not allow me to upload the short 20 second avi clips I made at the time in 2009. I threfore have attached some freeze frame smapshots. The identification came from the audio which was generally quite clear. These stations were received by the phenomenon known a tropospheric ducting and could sometimes selectively remove the alternately the sound or picture.

The set I used was a 1948 RCA Model 8T243. This set employed RCA chassis KCS28. I always thought the KCS28 (using the 10BP4) and the KCS29 (using the 16AP4) were the most impressive design for DXing, featuring not one but two upper adjacent channel traps and two lower adjacent channel traps. It was good in the day receiving fringe signals next to very strong adjacents. The split sound design as opposed to intercarrier ensured the sound was not dependent on video for reception. In the pictured examples, the audio was very clear to aid identification.